Gambling History: Keno
Keno is the oldest known game of chance in the world. This game was invented by a Chinese warlord Cheung Leung in approximately 200 B.C, during the crumble of Chou dynasty. Cheung Leung’s army was running low on supplies and armament and his city treasury was almost empty as a result of a lengthy war. The citizens weary of violent conflict that was lasting for many years vehemently refused to contribute any money to the war. To find a solution, Cheung Leung invented a game of chance that wherein participants could select Chinese characters and win
money if the character they selected was pulled at random. The game became so popular that the warlord was able to raise the necessary funds and save his city from a ruin.
The game first appeared in America when Chinese immigrants who helped to build railroads in the middle of XIX century brought the old game with them. At the time it was called “Chinese Lottery”. For many years, it was banned under U.S. gambling laws.
The game was mostly played in the Chinese-American community. In order to make the game more appealing, the Chinese characters were replaced by numbers, and the participants chose the numbers they thought would be pulled in drawings.
When Nevada legalized gambling in 1931, the lotteries were still banned under the law. In order to make this very popular game a time legal, the name of the game was changed to “horserace keno”. In the new game, the numbers appeared to represent horses, and gamblers bet on which horse would win the race. As the lottery games were legalized also, the name of the game was changed to “keno”.